How the Great Gatsby Influenced Beauty

The 1920’s was a time influenced highly by World War 1, which had just ended in 1918. During this time, women were exceptionally stressed out, worried about the male loved ones they had who were sent to war, and didn’t have the ability to worry about caring for their appearance much during this time. As the war ended, so came new fashions, beauty products, styles and trends which women were excited to indulge in to make up for the time spent not focusing on their appearance.

Fashions were implemented that allowed a woman to dress in more of a casual manner, allowing her the freedom to express herself through clothing that was very different from any time frame prior to the 20’s. The Great Gatsby was a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and had gone on to be released and re-released decade after decade. This classic book introduced a whole new wave of fashion and beauty to the world, and once women began to read the book back in these days, it inspired glamorous fashion. Today, Lionesse explores the ways in which The Great Gatsby influenced 1920’s beauty and fashion.

Fashion
In the original book and even in the movie, The Great Gatsby inspired women everywhere to want to indulge in a more glamorous side of life, the one like Daisy Buchanan, leads in the story. Long, glamorous dresses and flapper style clothing seen in the movies and reminiscent of the 1920’s fashion that we see in pictures from times of old were no doubt inspired by this novel. Cloche hats, beaded accents on clothing, fringe, and more could be seen in the movie, read about in the book, and played a huge role in the fashion game coming to life. Art deco style was also a large portion of 20’s inspired style by Gatsby.

Beauty
When it comes to beauty inspirations from The Great Gatsby, we can look to the glamorous styles worn by the stars in the movie for inspiration, and we can also look back upon pictures from the era. The eyebrow looks of the era were a major game changer, because women had been used to a natural brow look. Gone were the days of bushy, large eyebrows as women slowly started to implement tweezing into their beauty routine. From there, they also began to line their eyebrows to give it an extended appearance, and also began adding arches to the brows.

Lips were also extremely well lined using a special metallic tool and a lip color pertaining to the time frame. Usually, women would wear rich red hues and reddish pink hues eventually in the later 20’s. The Cupid’s Bow would be well defined, and made to look prominent.

Powder was another essential that women couldn’t go a day without. Every woman had her powder compact in her purse to give herself a touch up throughout the day. This helped the skin to appear matte, even toned, and covered up imperfections.

Rouge was an integral part of a woman’s daily beauty routine, and no woman wanted to leave home without it. In today’s times, we can liken rouge to blush, except for the fact that it was applied in a circular motion back in those days to achieve a rosy, fuller looking face.